300 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



In the development of this function of assisting private timber 

 owners, three stages may be recognized. In the first stage, repre- 

 sented by the period preceding the transfer of the forest reserves to 

 the Department of Agriculture, much attention was given to exami- 

 nations of private lands and preparation of working plans. The in- 

 creasing value of stumpage led many large timber owners to look 

 with some favor upon plans for the best utilization of the timber; 

 and the foresters rendered important assistance in two ways. In the 

 first place, they showed many lumbermen that they could actually 

 increase their profits by reducing the waste involved in cutting high 

 stumps, in throwing away too much of the tops, and in failing to 

 utilize more of the material left on the ground. Doubtless the lumber- 

 men would in time have seen the loss involved in their methods of 

 operation, but the change to more careful methods spread more 

 rapidly as a result of the early cooperative work. In the second place, 

 these early efforts of the foresters led to better methods of fire pro- 

 tection. This was done largely by educating the public up to a more 

 intelligent understanding of the danger of fires, and the methods of 

 preventing and suppressing them, and by stimulating the develop- 

 ment of cooperative fire protection organizations. 



During the second stage of this work, from the transfer of the 

 reserves in 1905 until about 1915, the cooperative work was much 

 less important, the Forest Service being engrossed in the preparation 

 and publication of information needed for scientific forestry, in the 

 training of more expert foresters, and especially in working out the 

 problems connected with the national forests. In the third stage, 

 beginning about 1915, the Forest Service gave renewed attention to 

 the problems of private forestry, particularly the problems of the 

 small woodlot. Considerable attention has been given in these later 

 years to the question of marketing. Also, with the development of a 

 clearer appreciation of the public aspects of the lumber industry as 

 a whole, more attention has been devoted to the problems of the large 

 owners, from the point of view of the public interests. The Greeley 

 report on "Some Public and Economic Aspects of the Lumber In- 

 dustry," published in 1917, is an illustration of this point of view. 

 Efficient and intelligent work along this line was made possible by 

 the investigative work carried on during the preceding years. 



